Noby Arden (1 December 1965–29 September 2020; age 54) was an acrobat, stuntwoman, and stunt coordinator who performed stunts in Star Trek Nemesis.
Arden was born in Florida near the Sandspur Island to Norbert "Norbu" Kreisch and Arden Kreisch. Her father was born in Germany and met her mother in 1951 when both joined the Wallenda Circus family. Arden Kreisch is a third generation circus performer. Together, Norbert and Arden were known for their act "Norbu, the almost Human gorilla" which they performed in various shows between 1954 and 1984. Noby-Arden was named after her parents and became the fourth generation of circus performers in the family when she started as a trapeze aerialist and acrobat at the age of five. When her mother retired in 1986, Noby-Arden took over her part in the act with her father until 1986. Norbert Kreisch passed away in 2020 at the age of 89 while Arden Kreisch still resides in Florida. [1] [2] [3]
Arden continued her circus career specialized in high work, acrobat, and wire work. She appeared as a bungee trapeze act for Cirque du Soleil and received a Bronze Clown Award at the International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo. Through her circus career she made her way into live stunt shows and played Marion in the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. She trained stunts under Bob Yerkes and made her first known stunt work in front of a camera in the 1993 film Damascus. Arden doubled Jane Seymour's horse riding in the pilot episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993, with Joe Lando, Chad Allen, Erika Flores, Colm Meaney, Hélène Udy, Nick Ramus, Frank Collison, Adrian Sparks, Bruce Mercury, Charles Grisham, Carrick O'Quinn, and Brian J. Williams), doubled guest actress Lisa Rieffel's acrobatic performance in the Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman episode "The Circus" (1994, with Barbara Babcock and Fionnula Flanagan), and Bianca Rossini's circus act in the Chicago Hope episode "With the Greatest of Ease" (1994, with Victoria Dillard, David Channell, Tami Peterson, Warren Tabata, Alex Daniels, and Svetla Krasteva).
Also in 1994, she doubled actress Jane March in the thriller Color of Night which featured Scott Bakula, Brad Dourif, Jeff Corey, Roberta Storm, Erick Avari, Lena Banks, Terry Jackson, Gary Baxley, and Gary Wayton. Arden portrayed a member of the Grayson family for the trapeze act in the DC comic adaptation Batman Forever (1995) on which she also worked as assistant trapeze trainer and bullwhip trainer for actress Debi Mazar. The film features Rene Auberjonois, Michael Scranton, Eileen Seeley, Gary Kasper, Kevin Grevioux, Sidney Liufau, Jim Palmer, Peewee Piemonte, Kimberly Auslander, Ed Begley, Jr., Lisa Christy, Erik Cord, Gunnel Eriksson, Holiday Freeman, Adolphus Hankins, Susan Lewis, Ve Neill, Wanda Norman, Darryl Stewart, and Ilona Wilson. Two years later in 1997, Arden doubled actress Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl in the sequel Batman & Robin, stunt coordinated by Alex Daniels and Ronald R. Rondell.
Arden worked as stunt double for Mary Kate Schellhardt on the adventure Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home (1995, stunt coordination by Jeff Imada), as stunt double for Rose McGowan on the horror thriller Scream (1996, with stunts by Christine Anne Baur, Chris Doyle, Dane Farwell, Frank Lloyd, Allen Robinson, and Lynn Salvatori and stunt coordination by Tony Cecere), as stunt double for Jaime Pressly in the thriller Poison Ivy: The New Seduction (1997, with Athena Massey), and as stunt double for Robin Tunney in the horror film The Craft (1996, with Cliff DeYoung, Brenda Strong, Tory Christopher, Rick Avery, and Al Jones). Her stunt fight against Fairuza Balk's stunt double Joni Avery in The Craft earned Arden an MTV Movie Award in the category Best Fight in 1997.
Other stunt work includes the science fiction thriller Johnny Mnemonic (1995), the crime thriller Truth or Consequences, N.M. (1997, with stunts by Perry Barndt, Eddie Braun, Eliza Coleman, Lanier Edwards, Corey Eubanks, David LeBell, and Kurt Lott), the television horror thriller The Devil's Child (1997, stunt coordination by Jeff Dashnaw), the eleven time Academy Award winner Titanic (1997), the action film Recoil (1998, stunt coordination by Dane Farwell, Andy Gill, and Doc Charbonneau), the television science fiction movie Brave New World (1998, with Leonard Nimoy), the fantasy drama What Dreams May Come (1998, with Rosalind Chao, Paradox Pollack, Scott Trimble and stunts by Joey Anaya, Rosine "Ace" Hatem, and Darlene Williams), the television movie Houdini (1998), the action drama The Hunter's Moon also formerly known as Wolverton Mountain (1999), and the crime thriller The Learning Curve (1999).
Arden became a member of the Stuntwomen's Association of Motion Pictures and worked as stunt double for Sarah Michelle Gellar on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Laura Innes on ER, Patricia Richardson on Home Improvement, Sabrina Lloyd on Sliders, Christine Elise on L.A. Firefighters (1996), Adrienne Frantz on Sunset Beach (1997), and Shelly Fabares and Clare Carey on Coach. She also performed stunts in episodes of Days of Our Lives, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Renegade, Baywatch Nights, Promised Land, Crusade (1999, starring Gary Cole, Tracy Scoggins, Marjean Holden, and Daniel Dae Kim), Northern Exposure, Married... with Children, Black Scorpion, Pacific Blue, The Nanny, She Spies, Touched by an Angel, Heroes, Desire (2006), Lovespring International (2006), and for six season on Passions.
Besides working in front of the camera, Arden also worked as stunt coordinator on episodes of All That, Dave's World, The Nanny, and A Nightmare on Elm Street: Real Nightmares (2005), the short drama The Spittin' Image (1997), and the Hang Time episode "Life 101" (2000, with Megan Parlen, Phillip Glasser, and Scarlett Pomers) on which she also worked as stunt double for Amber Barretto. She worked as aerial coordinator for Ricky Martin's "Livin' la Vida Loca Tour" in 1999 and Cher's "Do You Believe? Tour" in 2000. Arden performed stunts in commercials for brands such as Almond Joy, Tropicana, Nintendo, American Express, Weight Watchers, Levis, Ameritech, Bubble Barbie, Doritos, Pocari Sweat, Edison Power, NFL Blitz, Wrangler Jeans, Provider O, and So Flex and stunt coordinated commercials for Pepsi, Cannon Copiers, Honda, and Nike. She performed stunts in music videos for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Dwight Yoakam and stunt coordinated music videos for Madonna and Tom Petty.
Arden worked as aerial coordinator and/or flying trainer on the live shows "Spider-Man - Feature Pitch", "Nike Convention", "Jack the One-Eyed Jill", "GMP Inauguration", "1997 Fitness Awards", "Cirque du Future", "1997 POW/WOW", "Mermaid Live" at the Mermaid Lagoon at Tokyo DisneySea, 2000 and 2003 "Share Boomtown", and the "World Records Show". She worked as coordinator for Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams for Disney's 50th on the parade unit "Gateway to Dreams" (Tinkerbell, Remember) at the Disneyland in California, USA.
Further film stunt work includes the thriller Crime + Punishment in Suburbia (2000, coordinated by Al Jones), the television movie Geppetto (2000, with Brent Spiner, René Auberjonois, Scarlett Pomers, Anthony Crivello, Kane Hodder, Svetla Krasteva, and Mark Chadwick), the action comedy Rush Hour 2 (2001, with Svetla Krasteva), the comedy Saving Silverman (2001), the thriller 15 Minutes (2001), the science fiction thriller A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), the action thriller Rip It Off (2001), the action film S.W.A.T. (2003), the drama American Gun (2005), and the three fantasy films Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006), and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007).
Arden worked on a number of reality shows, mostly as stunt performer or stunt coordinator including Fear Factor (2002-2005), Race to the Altar (2003), Dog Eat Dog (2002-2003), Scream Play (2004), Battle of the Network Reality Stars (2005), America's Next Top Model, and Dean or No Deal.
She worked as stunt double for Helen Mirren on the action sequel National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007, with Bruce Greenwood, Alicia Coppola, Albert Hall, Larry Cedar, Maryellen Aviano, Jason Collins, and assistant stunt coordination by Dan Barringer) and for Joanna Miles on the television thriller Grave Misconduct (2008, with John Fleck, Fran Bennett, Bart McCarthy, Joey Anaya, and stunt coordination by Jayson Dumenigo). She stunt coordinated the short thriller Vestige (2016) and performed stunts in the action comedy CHiPs (2017, with Merrin Dungey, Ed Begley, Jr., Rob Mars, Tierre Turner, Clay Cullen, and Panuvat Anthony Nanakornpanom).
Arden passed away on 29 September 2020 at the age of 54.